DEREK HYATT (born 1931)
“Morning Song 1965”
Mixed Media on
Board. Artist’s
label on reverse. 91.5 x 76cm
A letter from the
Artist discussing the inspirations for this painting accompanies
this work IMAGE
Derek
Hyatt is a landscape painter, draughtsman, teacher and writer. He was born in Ilkley,
Yorkshire. He studied at
Leeds College of Art from 1948 to 1952 and then at the Royal College of Art
from 1954 to 1958 where he edited the Ark magazine, the issue on colour symbolism selling 3,000
copies in three days. From 1959 to 1964
he was visiting lecturer at Kingston College of Art, then returning to Yorkshire. He was a lecturer at Leeds College of Art
from 1964 to 1968 and then senior lecturer at Leeds Polytechnic from 1968 to
1984. Hyatt had many solo exhibitions
including several from 1960 to 1966 at the New Art Centre with others including
the University of York and Manor House, Ilkley in
1966; Arthur Gallery, Tampa, America in 1967; a series at Goosewell
Gallery, Menston from 1969 to 1976; Waddington
Gallery in 1975; Waddington and Tooth’s Gallery in 1977; Austin Desmond Fine
Art in 1989 and Dean Clough Contemporary Art Gallery, Halifax in 1991-2. There was a major retrospective at Cartwright
Hall, Bradford in 2001and another exhibition “Circle on the Dark Rock”
at Shire Pottery Gallery and Studios, Alnwick in
2003. Ruskin was a major influence on
the work of Derek Hyatt, having been “a star in my sky since student
days”. His main subject was the Yorkshire
landscape, especially from one vantage point high above Bishopdale,
and he believed that “the landscape enters our bodies…..we dance its
life”. Hyatt’s work is held by the Museum
of Modern Art in New
York; the
Contemporary Art Society; the Nuffield Foundation and many British provincial
galleries.
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